


Of multiple universes and probabilities

by Cristina_Anaya



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Confessions, Crack, Feelings Realization, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, First Kiss, Forgive Me, Getting to Know Each Other, Lance finger guns, M/M, Many of the characters are just mentioned, Please Kill Me, Post Season 2, Shiro has feelings and doesn't know what to do with them, Slav's many arms, is it really tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-06 01:22:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11025627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cristina_Anaya/pseuds/Cristina_Anaya
Summary: Shiro rescues Slav from impending death and reflects on how interesting Slav is once he gets to know him. Wait, why are they so close all of a sudden? Why is Shiro getting redder by the second?In which Shiro realizes he may feel something for this nervous reck of a Bytor that just can't stop listing percentages of probabilities every 5 minutes.Alternate title for this fic: A paladin and a scientist walk into the main deck...





	Of multiple universes and probabilities

**Author's Note:**

> I hate myself for this

Ever since they rescued the engineer, he had been getting on Shiro's nerves, being one of the very few that were able to. His indecisiveness over every little thing made Shiro want to punch a hole through the castle's walls.

He had to admit he _was_ a genius, though. Over the last few months he had really proved his intellect, by managing to design a way to repair the teludav system and then to locate Shiro when he disappeared. He had been with the resistance and Matt then, which had led to a pretty teary reunion between Pidge and her brother.

He had since talked to Slav a bit more, trying to understand him a bit better and also to make up for his yelling and loss of patience. Slav didn't take it to heart and told him it was fine, but Shiro couldn't help but feel a bit bad. He found than when he made an effort he was pretty easy to listen to, and that he got really excited talking about parallel universes when the topic is not about his or the paladins’ impending doom.

Over that time he found that he was not as annoyed as he used to be by the Bytor’s quirks and ticks. He even would say that he had come to find them… endearing. As endearing as Lance’s attempts to flirt with everything that moves are, that is.

He was taking a stroll down the castle, as he usually did on those rare “free” days, when he heard a crashing noise coming from the main deck. He quickly made his way to it only to find Slav buried under a ladder and some tools. He rushed to him, lifted up the ladder and Slav scurried away a bit. Shiro put it back on the floor and turned to the scientist.

“Oh, thank goodness you were near, black paladin, there was a good 78% chance that I would have stayed trapped under that ladder for at least 2 hours and I was really starting to think it was going to happen” he said while dusting off his outfit.

“What were you doing anyway?” Shiro asked.

“Well, I was trying to reach the lights in the columns of the deck to check if they are all secure, because there is a 83% chance that they could fall on someone if they’re not, and that could cause great injury depending on the circumstances” he explained hurriedly. Shiro repressed a sigh.

“Why didn’t you just ask for help?” he asked.

“Well, I figured you and the other paladins would be training so I didn’t want to impose”, he said, pressing his index fingers together repeatedly.

“You wouldn’t be imposing”.

Slav decided not to reply to that statement. Shiro walked towards the stairs of the deck and motioned the Bytor to sit with him.

“Slav”, he beginned. “I’m sorry if you feel like you would be imposing in asking for help if it’s for my sake. I know I have apologized before but-

“No, it’s not that”, Slav interrupted him. “I just didn’t want to bother you is all”.

“You don’t bother me”.

Slav became quiet again after that. They fell into a slightly uncomfortable silence, though it was nothing Shiro couldn’t handle. He had had to live with Keith in his full emo phase where he wouldn’t talk to him for days, this was nothing in comparison . The silence was interrupted by Slav’s sigh.

“You're a good person, you know”, he started. “I'm just so impressed at how you go out of your way to be kind to other people”.

“Slav—”

“You didn’t have to keep me here”, the Bytor continued. “After I fixed the castle’s teludav, or even after finding a way to locate where you were, you could just have sent me somewhere else, but you have allowed me to stay with you”. While saying this Slav was fidgeting more and more with his hands, 6 of them at that.

“That was not my decision only”, said Shiro.

“I know that, but you still had some part in it, and given that I understand my way of being is not for everyone—”

“Stop”, Shiro said as he puts his two hands on Slav’s top ones. “I already apologized for my behaviour towards you before but it was not enough, so I’ll say it again. Me being stressed because rescuing you from that Galra prison was a dire situation is no excuse for treating you the way I did. Your way of being is just fine the way it is and you don’t have to apologize for it”. Shiro loosened his grip on Slav’s hands and shifted them to hold them gently.

“You-”, he continued. “You have done extraordinary things for us since we rescued you, but I wouldn’t say that’s the only reason I, uh, _we_ like having you around”, hearing this Slav looked up at Shiro with a surprised look on his face.

“You… _like_ having me around?”, he asked.

“Y-yeah. You’re fun to talk to, you can hold really interesting conversation when you’re not worrying about terrible alternate realities, and you’re really intelligent and-” at that moment Shiro realized he had been getting closer to Slav while he talked, so they were just inches apart now. Shiro’s eyes shifted to Slav’s beak for a second while the Bytor got lost in his deep gray eyes …

“A-AND YEAH THAT’S WHY WE LIKE HAVING YOU AROUND”, he raised his voice as he pulled away and moved so that they were a foot apart now. Shiro covered his face in embarrassment, having gone as red as Keith’s helmet.

“O-oh. Well, thank you Shiro” said Slav turning away. Wait, was he… blushing?

Slav stood up and walked to the door. Shiro watched him as his mighty blush started to calm down.

“I'm going to check on what the green one is doing, I think she said she was going to look for a way to track her father”, the Bytor said while lightly scratching his face. “Uh… See you at dinner?”

“A-ah, yeah. S-see you at dinner, Slav”, Shiro managed to say, smiling.

Slav nodded at this and left the main deck, leaving Shiro still flustered and confused. It just so happened that Lance passed the main deck just then. He walked into  Slav muttering to himself and still red-faced and then he saw a bewildered Shiro looking at the door from the stairs in the deck. He did a double check and then smiled and finger-gunned at Shiro with a knowing look, finishing it all with a wink, and then left.

This only made Shiro’s blush reach new levels, and the same burning questions repeated loudly in his mind: how had they gotten so close? Why had Shiro wanted to lean in? Why didn’t he do it?

And, more importantly: why was Slav blushing too?

 

*****

 

Dinner was…interesting, to say the least.

Shiro made conversation with the rest of the paladins, and occasionally turned to look at the Bytor, but every time their gazes would cross Slav turned his face away from him. Lance caught him in one of these occasions and smirked knowingly. Shiro wanted the caste to eject him into space.

After dinner was over Shiro went after Slav. He didn’t think he would be able to sleep at all with these thoughts on his mind.

He found him on the way to the lounge area, and he pulled him inside hoping no one else decided to come in for a few minutes at least.

“Slav”, he started once he closed the door. “We need to talk”.

At this Slav’s expression became worried, and Shiro noticed.

“No! Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad”, he assured him. “I just… I need to tell you something”.

Slav just nodded quietly and Shiro took a deep breath. On the way here he had prepared a whole speech, full of sentiment and very elaborate, like straight out of those romantic movies that the put on TV on Saturday afternoon, or one of those high school movies when the protagonist asked their crush to prom. He pretty much felt like a teenager again, sweating nervously and blushing again about to confess to someone.

So yes, he had something prepared that he wanted to say, but at the last minute Shiro just decided to be blunt.

“Slav, I… I may have feelings for you”. Slav then raised an eyebrow.

“Why, yes Shiro, I believe everybody has feelings for everyone in one way or another, you could feel hatred, you could feel apathy—”

“No, I mean…”, Shiro interrupted him. “I mean I may have… _romantic_ feelings towards you”.

“Oh”. Slav went quiet again for a moment before he continued. “Well, it was bound to happen in some reality. There were infinite possibilities of… No, scratch that, there was a 36% chance of it happening in this one, so I didn’t want to get my hopes up because, well, just look at the number, 36 out of 100 is not that much considering there was already a 78% of me falling for you, which already happened, but you returning the feelings is another different story and—”

“Wait”, Shiro interrupted once more. “Did you say… that you feel the same?”

“Why yes, I think I did, so I—” This was the third time the Bytor was interrupted in this conversation, but this time was because Shiro enveloped him in a hug.

“Uh, Shiro?”

“I’m sorry if this was unexpected, but I… I’m really happy”, he said, pulling away.

“No, it’s okay, I… I’m happy too”.

Shiro smiled at this and held Slav’s two upper hands tenderly.

“Can I kiss you?”, he asked then.

“Well, I believe in terms of capability, you can. There are multiple universes where that wouldn’t be possible because of various reasons, such as race type or because of—” Shiro put a finger to his beak to stop his rambling.

“Okay, can I kiss you _now_ in this universe?” he corrected himself.

“I think you can”.

Shiro then leaned in and planted  kiss to the Bytor’s beak. He felt Slav’s third set of arms move to hold his hips while he moved his own hands towards his face. Then he pulled away and put their foreheads together while he smiled contently.

He was sure at that moment that this was going to be the start of another whole adventure.

**Author's Note:**

> The first fic that I write in years and I come back to this, good lord.
> 
> I hope that you enjoyed this nonsense. This is dedicated to the people in the discord chat, you know who you are, you fiends.
> 
> In reference for me using Bytor as Slav’s species name: http://3dkind.tumblr.com/post/158727105124/slavs-species-name


End file.
